Nike Ain’t Tolerated

Well, that was quick. Nike shoots another own goal with their divisive and abrasive marketing campaign and takes it down (Hayden West for Canadian Running with the story):

A Boston Marathon Nike campaign, put up outside its flagship store on Newbury St. in Boston on Thursday, has the running world up in arms. The sign, which read, “Runners welcome. Walkers tolerated,” was heavily criticized for pace-shaming and not being inclusive to runners of all levels or abilities. On Friday, Nike removed the sign and issued an apology.

So, what happened?

• Nike’s not an official sponsor, so this fits squarely into the ambush marketing campaign category the roll out a billboard in Boston – ahead of the Boston Marathon – with the message: “Runners welcome. Walkers tolerated“.
• Already earlier this week they got into hot water for a similarly messaged billboard a a UK ParkRun. This one said: “You didn’t come all this way for a walk in the park.” Another ambush marketing message completely missing the point of the ParkRun culture.
• Last year at the London Marathon they had a similar billboard with the message: ““Never Again. Until Next Year.” This one reminding folks of a phrase tied to Holocaust remembrance.

So, Nike knows exactly what they are doing with these billboards. And maybe the “mea culpa” take down after the outcry is totally planned into all this. After all “all news is good news”, or so used to be the excuse when a marketing campaign falls flat on its face.

I don’t subscribe to that notion. These billboards, and the mentality behind the message it feels straight out of bullying culture. It’s totally against what running has been standing for over the last few years. The whole ‘run club’ culture has been about embracing the casual run as supposed seeing the sport just performance based. Even Satisfy which had introduced an elitist urban cool against the garish colored running brand status quo never had to resort to this sort of brain dead messaging. There’s trying to be different and then there’s just being completely out of touch. Nike, once heralded as the definition of cool and at the heart of culture has completely lost the plot here. Appalling.

Nike is a big corporation and so I am not going to throw this campaign at the feet of the same folks who are working on the ACG rollout, but IF this Nike is now entering our sport than our best moments during the golden hour are a smack in the face of these “creative minds” with their six figure jobs.